2003 in Pictures

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Roommates reunited! Early in the year, I visited my Junior-year roommate Scott, and his wife Alisa. At the time they were pregnant with their first. I enjoyed catching up with them both, helping build their crib, and enjoying Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

In the spring, Tim and I took a break from reality and visited Florida! Here we sit enjoying dinner on the downtown circle of Sarasota, Fl. We had a blast cruising around town in our rented Infinity I45, playing mini-golf, of course hitting the beach and eating seafood.

Jana came to Ohio to visit all us snowbirds! Josh came over from Indy and Susan joined up as well. We enjoyed breakfast together, reminiscing old times, and of course acting stupid.


	As promised here are pictures of my girlfriend Alyssa! She's an Iowa girl who came all the way to Ohio just to meet me! Okay, maybe it was to get a degree from Cedarville, but at any rate. Isn't she adorable!!?

Above from left to right are pictures of us in my apartment, in the circle of downtown Indianapolis, and on a sand dune near the shore of Lake Michigan. To the right, you can see Emily, my niece, trying to figure out how to fit her hat on Alyssa's head. My nephew and niece have a blast with her!

Now you know where Brutus Buckeye hangs out - Ritter's Custard! Here Mom and Dad check out the grand opening and pose with the mascot. Also behind Mom is a guy painted like a bronze statue. He would walk around and "freeze" for minutes at a time. He was really good at it!

Look at my niece! Chris, Brenda and the kids came to Columbus to surprise Dad for his birthday. Here I'm holding less-than-one-year-old Emily. She has such large, pretty eyes!


	Alyssa and I are posing by a T-6A Texan II. This is the aircraft I work with at Wright-Patterson. We attended the Dayton Air Show with some friends from church. But don't worry, I wore my sunscreen!
	This is a picture of me in the hypobaric chamber at Shaw AFB. To obtain our altitude rating, we went through a day of classroom training and then a "flight" in the altitude chamber. The flight involved decreasing the pressure to simulate an altitude of 25,000 ft. and experiencing our hypoxia symptoms by removing our oxygen masks. This training was awesome! It really shows you how important oxygen is to your body!
	Why get an altitude rating? This is why! Unfortunately that's not me standing on the open landing ramp of the C-130J flying at 29,500 ft., but I did take the picture! The C-130 office "borrowed" me to help with a hydraulic test on the rear door. Since I was allowed to fly in a depressurized aircraft, I took them up on the opportunity! Quite the rush!
	If you want another shot of me looking all cool in my flight gear, here you go. On the picture to the left, you can see the inside of the C-130J along with one of the flight physiologist who was there to make sure we stayed alive. No, really he was. Terrific experience!

Grandma Days 2003! We went to the Willow Valley Resort in Lancaster County Pennsylvania and caught a show at the Sight and Sound Theater. Here we are outside the theater getting ready to see "Daniel and the Lion's Den".

During a quick lunch, my nephew Mark and I decided to play with our food at McDonalds. He turned 4 this year and we always have a blast playing together. I'm sure I'm a good role model for him, like not playing with your food, for example.

Here's a pic of Alyssa and her girlfriends a few days before graduation from Cedarville this summer. Left to right, Sarah, Alyssa, Jill, and Amanda. I met them all when they began attending Patterson Park Church at the end of 2002. What a fun group of friends!

Jim, myself, Alyssa, and Jill went to dinner and Jungle Jim's this summer to play the grocery game! Yes, Jungle Jim's is a grocery store, but it's not any ordinary grocery store! It's crazy-huge and has things from all over the world. But I think the highlight of the evening was when Alyssa dumped her Coke all over Jill by accident. Ha!


	At the end of 2003 I took a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico! I'm pictured here as our ship steams out of Tamps, Fl (you can see it way back in the distance to the left). The cruise was "free" - it was one of those "listen to our sales pitch and we'll give you a free cruise" deals. And it actually worked! I took my friend Josh from Cedarville and we enjoyed relaxing on the ship and exploring Cozumel.
	On day two, we woke up with nothing but water surrounding us! This photo was taken from the top deck, looking down towards the pool and surrounding decks. The ship was huge! We ate constantly and always had plenty to do.
	The formal dinner was the second night so we dressed up in preparation for the lobster and prime rib! Josh and I snapped this pic before heading in to indulge. So which entree did we get? Both! I also got two rounds of shrimp cocktail, two soups, two deserts and three cappuccinos for dessert. I'm telling you, we ate constantly.
	These pics show the midnight buffet. The first is the dessert table (now you see why we ate so much?) and the second shows the decorative talents of the kitchen staff.
	Cozumel! While in Cozumel, we rented jeeps to tour the island and also went snorkeling in the coral reefs hidden in that blue water you see in this picture. The colors and wildlife were fantastic! I also swam next to a 4' barracuda - thankfully he didn't eat me.
	Here we are in the second half of our tour. We went off-roading in jeeps and I'm sure destroyed the suspension. I have no idea why our vehicle didn't break into 1000 pieces considering the terrain we were traversing. But needless to say, we had a blast!!
	Before heading into downtown, we returned to the ship to wash off the sunscreen and dress up a bit. Here are two pics of the ship as it sits in the harbor. The one on the right shows you just how huge these are!
	Here is downtown Cozumel. We did a good bit of shopping, ate at a local place off the beaten path, and said "No" to about 400 street vendors. We had beautiful weather the entire time and a fantastic trip.